Ivan was working at Altered Skin when I dropped off a couple forms there last year. Not totally sure how the collection process for the art was going to work, it was pleasing when Ivan's form made it back with this sweet illustration on it! Here's a link to the form in case anyone wants to submit artwork - 5980-Sumthin Artwork FORM. The more the merrier!

Thanks, again, to everyone involved with this series and I hope to see more and more of these wonderful designs. They're AMAZING!!!

The Fifty-Sixth Skateboard Donation

It's another 5980-Sumthin joint! Thank you so much to the extremely wonderful and extremely talented Andreah Weitz for designing the third 5980-Sumthin Artist Series board and the 56th overall skateboard donation.

Like the other artists in the series thus far, I made Andreah's acquaintance in the Creative Department at the Missoulian and have been a fan of her artwork ever since. While her designs are beautiful, it's Andreah's personality and sense of humor that really shines. This gal seriously cracks me up and occasionally drops a line to see if I'm wearing my "Friday Pants". I always knew there was a trend to my wardrobe, but leave it to Andreah to catch on and further more brand my predictability.

Andreah and I have always shared a bond in that we had similarly wild party-filled high school days and I love the term "scone" which Andreah and her Spokane cohorts coined for finishing a beer quickly as parents were approaching, like "dude scone that beer my mom's coming."

To see more of Andreah's artwork, check her out on Instagram at Aitch&Letter and for any kind of freelance design work she comes very highly recommended. Thank you, again, Andreah and I seriously cannot wait to catch up with you again and continue to create amazing things...in whatever outfit the day finds us in.

The Fifty-Fourth Skateboard Donation

This newsletter is a little behind schedule, but good news, our donation train is right on time!!! Thank you so much to Dan Sullivan, the second artist featured in the 5980-Sumthin Artist Series.

I first met Dan when he relieved my position working nights at the Missoulian. While training Dan on the tasks of the "Creative Night Person" it became immediately apparent that Dan was very skilled at design and it wasn't long before he moved from nights to become one of the premiere artists in the company. I particularly love the graphic Dan created for the 2013 River City Roots Festival.

When asked how he came up with the idea for the skateboard, Dan mentioned that he Googled skateboarding and saw a picture of a longboarder skating down the street just Coastin'. Throw in some graffiti and there you have it. One of the great things about Dan's work is that it looks so simple, so obvious, so "why didn't I do that?" Check out Whiskey and Chance on Instagram for more of Dan's wonderful art, and, of course, thank you so much for your help with the Artist Series, bro...you make it happen like a boss.

Sincerely,

SPM

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The 5980-Sumthin Artist Series

A good many months back I contacted the Tony Hawk Foundation in hopes of starting up a partnership. I had a couple ideas on how to team up, one of them being the 5980-Sumthin Artist Series where 12x skateboards, with graphics provided by local artists, would be "made possible in part by The Tony Hawk Foundation." Unfortunately the Tony Hawk Foundation rejected this partnership, which did nothing but motivate me to create the series even more.

The Fifty-Third Skateboard Donation

Thank you so much to Kelli DePue, who I first met while she was driving a forklift at the Missoulian - who knew this gal was actually an amazing artist?!! It wasn't long after, however, that Kelli's artwork was selected for the cover of Cultural Treasures (2011 and 2014) and she joined the Creative Team to build ads.

When asked how Kelli creates her artwork she says she just kinda goes with it. I really like that answer. It's just like, take a deep breath and begin.

For this board Kelli created a wonderful painting (same size as a skate deck),

which we then photographed, for a digital version, and sent to the skateboard graphics printer. Thus, there is an amazing, non-digital, version of this artwork in the 4Missoula office...score!!!

It definitely took a long time for this concept to come to fruition, but now that we've launched, there will be one skateboard every month donated with help from our sponsors...and the fantastic artists in our community.

Thank you so much, Kelli. There couldn't have been a better artist to kick this thing off with than you!!!